A mitzvah, a commandment.
While we think immediately of the 10. The traditional number of all the commandments in the Torah, the first five books of the bible, is 613. Yes, 613 commandments.
While as Christians we do not consider ourselves bound to all 613, the heart of the commandments is the same.
At their heart the commandments are about putting faith into action. They are a recognition that our very life is a gift from God and our every word and action should be directed to doing God's will.
In later Jewish tradition the word has taken on a broader meaning. It can refer to any small act of kindness done for someone, if it is done with an eye toward doing God's will.
Among the commandments there are those known as the 6 constant commandments
1. Know there is God
2. Believe in no other power
3. God is one
4. Love God
5. Fear God
6. Do not be mislead by your heart or eyes
While we may have trouble with number 5, we should remember that the Hebrew verb means to fear or to see. Perhaps to us an odd combination of meanings but it is rooted in the concept of the constant presence of God. Knowing that God is watching would I do this or that thing?
Jesus in today's gospel says clear he came not to abolish but to fulfill the law. Perhaps there is still much we can learn from our Jewish predecessors.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Numbers everywhere
In the gospel today we get the famous passage of how many time we must forgive. It's Matthew today so just gives us not 7 but 77.
Here it helps to know the background. In the rabbinic law 3, a religiously significant number, was the maximum required. The disciples then think they are being generous ask about 7, the perfect number. Jesus chooses 77.
To find that number you have to go all the way back to Genesis 4, and a descendent of Cain. Lamech is the very embodiment of wrath and vengeance. He says to his wives:
I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.
Jesus calls us to the opposite. It is not enough to keep the rabbinic law. We are to be the mirror image of Lamech. As fiercely as he embodies anger and vengeance we must embody love and forgiveness.
Here it helps to know the background. In the rabbinic law 3, a religiously significant number, was the maximum required. The disciples then think they are being generous ask about 7, the perfect number. Jesus chooses 77.
To find that number you have to go all the way back to Genesis 4, and a descendent of Cain. Lamech is the very embodiment of wrath and vengeance. He says to his wives:
I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.
Jesus calls us to the opposite. It is not enough to keep the rabbinic law. We are to be the mirror image of Lamech. As fiercely as he embodies anger and vengeance we must embody love and forgiveness.
Monday, March 12, 2012
The Naaman Problem
Note: I've been away from the blog for a few days, because I had to say farewell to my 11 1/2 yr. old corgi Bartholomew.
Looking at today's first reading it dawned on me that perhaps Christianity in the modern age has the same problem as Elisha the Prophet. Naaman is sent by his master to Elisha to be cured of his leprosy. The problem- Elisha tells him to go wash in the river, period. No incantations, no jumping around, just wash in the Jordan. It was too simple. Naaman is livid. He wants more.
Even as we see our church attending population aging, turn on your television and every network now has some program about the supernatural. Magic is everywhere. Why the disconnect?
On the one hand there is something inside the human soul that knows there is more to life than what the world of science and math studies. On the other hand Christianity is too simple. Even in Catholic circles there are those who think the present way of celebrating the sacraments too simple.
We are like Naaman, we think it ought to be hard; it ought to be complicated.
What we can forget is that while we participate and are the recipients of God's grace, we are not or should not be the focal point of the action. It is always God who is the primary actor.
God called us to take simple elements like water and with simple words like "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" makes them the source of healing and new life.
It's not magic; it's grace.
In the sacrament of reconciliation, "I absolve you of your sins..."
In Confirmation, "Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit"
The sacraments are simple because there foundation is simple, God's love for us.
We only need to embrace the simple truth.
Looking at today's first reading it dawned on me that perhaps Christianity in the modern age has the same problem as Elisha the Prophet. Naaman is sent by his master to Elisha to be cured of his leprosy. The problem- Elisha tells him to go wash in the river, period. No incantations, no jumping around, just wash in the Jordan. It was too simple. Naaman is livid. He wants more.
Even as we see our church attending population aging, turn on your television and every network now has some program about the supernatural. Magic is everywhere. Why the disconnect?
On the one hand there is something inside the human soul that knows there is more to life than what the world of science and math studies. On the other hand Christianity is too simple. Even in Catholic circles there are those who think the present way of celebrating the sacraments too simple.
We are like Naaman, we think it ought to be hard; it ought to be complicated.
What we can forget is that while we participate and are the recipients of God's grace, we are not or should not be the focal point of the action. It is always God who is the primary actor.
God called us to take simple elements like water and with simple words like "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" makes them the source of healing and new life.
It's not magic; it's grace.
In the sacrament of reconciliation, "I absolve you of your sins..."
In Confirmation, "Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit"
The sacraments are simple because there foundation is simple, God's love for us.
We only need to embrace the simple truth.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Three years after Columbus
In 1495 a baby was born in Portugal named João Cidade Duarte. His family had at one time been prominent, but had lost it all. He worked as a farm hand.
After moving to Spain he served for a short while in the Army of Carlos V. He then had a psychological break and spent a period of his life in an insane asylum, as the were known. He recovered his mental health and spent the rest of his 55 years spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
Today we know him as St. John of God.
He knew adversity from the very beginning of his life, and yet each adversity seemed to only draw him closer to God. Today as we remember him, let us follow the example.
After moving to Spain he served for a short while in the Army of Carlos V. He then had a psychological break and spent a period of his life in an insane asylum, as the were known. He recovered his mental health and spent the rest of his 55 years spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
Today we know him as St. John of God.
He knew adversity from the very beginning of his life, and yet each adversity seemed to only draw him closer to God. Today as we remember him, let us follow the example.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
What is your position?
To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
A curious adjective in English when you think about it, upright. What's even more curious is that it was used to describe the morality of a person for two centuries before it was used as an adjective to describe the physical position of being up right.
In one sense it juxtaposes us with the animals who walk on all fours or bent over. It's opposite would be upside down, which presupposes that there is an up side. There is a right position and a wrong position. There is a proper alignment.
Are you an upright person? Before you answer that I would have you look at another aspect of your life, your priorities. Then for all of us it becomes a more difficult question.
If we were to make a list of our priorities, not in the order we think we hold them, but based on which ones we give the most time and energy, would it still be upright?
A curious adjective in English when you think about it, upright. What's even more curious is that it was used to describe the morality of a person for two centuries before it was used as an adjective to describe the physical position of being up right.
In one sense it juxtaposes us with the animals who walk on all fours or bent over. It's opposite would be upside down, which presupposes that there is an up side. There is a right position and a wrong position. There is a proper alignment.
Are you an upright person? Before you answer that I would have you look at another aspect of your life, your priorities. Then for all of us it becomes a more difficult question.
If we were to make a list of our priorities, not in the order we think we hold them, but based on which ones we give the most time and energy, would it still be upright?
Monday, March 5, 2012
How perfect
One day before Super Tuesday there is something too providential about the gospel's admonition:
Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
From the far left who wants to talk about a "war on women" to the far right talk of "socialist agenda." The judging and condemning going on seem to be at least the worst in my lifetime.
This gospel does not mean that we are not to have principles and convictions. It does not even mean that we are not supposed to make reasoned judgements. Life should be a constant series of those.
It means we should not be moving beyond the judging of the policy to the attribution of motive, as if we can read what is in another persons heart. The language of the sinister plot (they want to take away your freedom to...), is antithetical to Christianity.
We love to think of ourselves as a religious country. Most of us think of ourselves as Christians. Yet, in our conversations, particularly the political ones it seems lately, we set our Christianity aside.
In this Lenten season perhaps it is time to monitor our judgments just a bit more.
Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
From the far left who wants to talk about a "war on women" to the far right talk of "socialist agenda." The judging and condemning going on seem to be at least the worst in my lifetime.
This gospel does not mean that we are not to have principles and convictions. It does not even mean that we are not supposed to make reasoned judgements. Life should be a constant series of those.
It means we should not be moving beyond the judging of the policy to the attribution of motive, as if we can read what is in another persons heart. The language of the sinister plot (they want to take away your freedom to...), is antithetical to Christianity.
We love to think of ourselves as a religious country. Most of us think of ourselves as Christians. Yet, in our conversations, particularly the political ones it seems lately, we set our Christianity aside.
In this Lenten season perhaps it is time to monitor our judgments just a bit more.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
What so good about it?
The true curmudgeon's response to "Good Morning." In the world of the Christian's world every morning is good because we know that each new day was made by God.
The gospel today is the famous, ask and you shall receive...passage.
And we all know that we shall not always receive what we ask for.
Instead the passage promises that God knows how to give us "what is good."
Here is where it suddenly gets tricky.
Moral good we know, in the sense that God has taught us through the Law, the Prophets, Jesus, and the Church what is right and wrong.
Here we are addressing another kind of good, what is good for us at a particular moment in our lives.
Our natural instinct is to avoid pain, and seek pleasure. In this way we are not too different from animals. It's why dogs will eat chocolate and drink antifreeze, because they taste good.
We are suppose to live on a different level. We have been given by God the capacity to transcend, to see the long view, the eternal view. We have the capacity to make choices with a view not just to the momentary pleasure or pain but with a goal of eternal life. But how often do we use this capacity?
We are like the person with a beautiful voice who refuses to sing. We have a gift, and let it go to waste. Look at any tv commercial or campaign ad. They all promise solutions that are easy, quick, and painless. And we, like the dog with the poisonous chocolate swallow it, because it's what we want to hear. We choose the animal life.
Jesus invites us to the truly human life, to use the incredible gifts of intellect and will he has given us, to see the truth. The medicine we need tastes nasty. The best road is sometimes rough. And there is such a thing a good pain.
The gospel today is the famous, ask and you shall receive...passage.
And we all know that we shall not always receive what we ask for.
Instead the passage promises that God knows how to give us "what is good."
Here is where it suddenly gets tricky.
Moral good we know, in the sense that God has taught us through the Law, the Prophets, Jesus, and the Church what is right and wrong.
Here we are addressing another kind of good, what is good for us at a particular moment in our lives.
Our natural instinct is to avoid pain, and seek pleasure. In this way we are not too different from animals. It's why dogs will eat chocolate and drink antifreeze, because they taste good.
We are suppose to live on a different level. We have been given by God the capacity to transcend, to see the long view, the eternal view. We have the capacity to make choices with a view not just to the momentary pleasure or pain but with a goal of eternal life. But how often do we use this capacity?
We are like the person with a beautiful voice who refuses to sing. We have a gift, and let it go to waste. Look at any tv commercial or campaign ad. They all promise solutions that are easy, quick, and painless. And we, like the dog with the poisonous chocolate swallow it, because it's what we want to hear. We choose the animal life.
Jesus invites us to the truly human life, to use the incredible gifts of intellect and will he has given us, to see the truth. The medicine we need tastes nasty. The best road is sometimes rough. And there is such a thing a good pain.
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